Portal connected to a social backend

ABSTRACT

A portal system comprises a portal connected to at least one social backend, a portal object generator for creating a page in the portal, and a backend processing component. The portal system further performs a method comprising: integrating functionality of said at least one social backend into said portal system; implementing association information as meta data entries containing information about a social object of said at least one social backend; receiving a notification about creation of new portal objects by an integration component; creating a new instance of a social object within said at least one social backend by said integration component; receiving a new identification from a newly created social object by said integration component; inserting new social object identification into meta data of said newly created social object; and representing said social object as a portal object to a portal user.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates in general to the field of web portals,and in particular to a portal environment and a method for operating aportal environment. Still more particularly, the present inventionrelates to a data processing program and a computer program product foroperating a portal environment.

Web Portals allow providing a role specific personalized view onapplications and web contents of an enterprise by end users via asingle-entry point. Applications and information coming from multiplesources are aggregated into a portal page that serves a specificbusiness need helping site visitors, customers or employees to get totheir individual goals more efficiently. This could mean, for example,for an employee to get the individual job tasks done more quickly and dofaster and better decisions because all relevant information andapplications are immediately at hand on the corresponding portal page,or for a site visitor to find target information and application for heror his specific user profile. In those portal systems, the portal pageis typically assembled by page editors putting the right set ofapplication components, typically portlets, and the right set ofaccompanying web content onto those pages and then exposing those pagesto individual user roles as needed. The web content in turn, istypically created by content authors using a web content managementsystem that provides the means to efficiently create web contentsupporting concepts like workflow based approval processes for newcontent, previewing of new draft content, versioning, reusable designcomponents to support consistent look and feel, targeting of the rightcontent to the right user profiles, archiving and syndicating newlycreated or modified content from an authoring system to individualdelivery systems.

On the other hand, there is a trend in information technology (IT)towards social aspects of user interaction that are even more dynamicthan what web portals provide today. So, new communities are created byend-users, permanently modified, and deleted again, representing dynamicteams, or interest groups. These communities share information forexample via wikis, blogs, or files organized in folders that arecreated, modified and removed again depending on the current demand.Furthermore, any such social artifact can be tagged and/or rated byanyone to make it easy for anybody to find it based on the individualinterest or need. In summary portals are not sufficiently integratedwith social backends or networks to be able to reflect the volatilecharacter of today user interaction.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a conceptual prior art portal environment 1, andFIG. 3 shows a component interaction flow, in the prior art portalenvironment 1 to create a new portal page. In the portal environment 1new portal artifacts can be add by instantiating page templates and/orportlets that are associated with specific applications or content.Furthermore, the instantiation of portal artifacts can even trigger thecreation of new portal web content as depicted in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a prior art portal environment 1comprises a portal 10 used by a client 3 and connected to at least onebackend 40 providing external web site data 42. To run at least oneportal application the portal 10 comprises a page model component 12comprising page models edited by a page editor 5, a portlet modelcomponent 14 comprising portlet models developed by a portlet developer7, a templating component 15, a web content manager 16 used by contentauthors 8 and site designers 9 to create and update web content to beused, and a portal access control component 18. The page model component12 and the portlet model component 14 are connected to a portal database 20 storing different page models and portlet models. The webcontent manager 16 is connected to a web content database 30 andcomprises a web content rendering engine capable of transforming a givencontent item into markup that can be rendered by the client 3.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, in prior art, the integration of data fromexternal web sites 42 of at least one external backend 40 is done usingdedicated integration portlets of the portlet model component 14 thatretrieve feed driven information, e.g. lists of social data like blogentries, list of shred bookmarks, etc., from a separate external website 42, and generate according markup to be added as markup fragment tothe overall page.

In this approach, a page editor 5 can add external capabilities to aportal page by putting a right integration portlet onto the page, suchthat the appropriate feed driven information gets added to the page. Thecorresponding conceptual component interaction flow between the client 3and the web content manager 16 is depicted in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 3, in a first step the client 3 creates a portalobject, e.g. a page, from a template in the portal environment 1 bycalling the corresponding model controller application programminginterfaces (APIs) of the portal model component 12 or the portlet modelcomponent 14 that handle the page instantiation in the portal 10. Thepage model component 12 and/or the portlet model component 14 load acorresponding page template from the portal data base 20. The templatingcomponent 15 of the portal 10 listens for events triggered by the pagecreation process and retrieves mapped data of corresponding site areas.Further, the templating component 15 copies a corresponding site areafrom the web content manager 16 and sets a corresponding site areaowner. Further, the templating component 15 maps the new side area datain the portal data base 20 and transmits the new page to the portalmodel component 12 or the portlet model component 14 portal application,which present the new page to a web browser of the client 3.

The fundamental problem with prior art solutions is the static nature ofthe integration. If a specific portlet displays the content of a givenblog entry and this blog entry gets removed the portlet is broken andrequires manual maintenance by either changing its configuration to getthe content of a different blog entry or by removing the portlet.

Also new content is not easy to integrate. If there is a new interestingblog entry available on the backend a new portlet must be added to theportal and configured to get the content of the new blog entry.

This setup requires either interaction of an administrator with therights to add, remove and configure portlets or to give correspondingaccess to the end users resulting either in even longer delays or a lackof security. Independent from that the prior art solution can alsoeasily lead to an outdated and incomplete representation of the data tobe integrated.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment of the present invention, a portal system comprises: aportal connected to at least one social backend, where said at least onesocial backend supports a social media service for a user of the portal;a portal object generator for creating a page in the portal, wherecreating the page in the portal changes a portal model of the portal;and a backend processing component for keeping the portal synchronizedwith said at least one social backend in response to changes in theportal, where the changes in the portal comprise at least one of a groupconsisting of: creation of a new page, deletion of an existing page,modification of an existing page, creation of a new portlet, anddeletion of an existing portlet, where said portal comprises anintegration component communicating with said at least one socialbackend. The portal system further performs a method comprising:integrating functionality of said at least one social backend into saidportal system by creating at least one portal object that is associatedwith at least one social object, where a representative social object iscreated in response to a web content item with social content beingcreated, where content is retrieved from a web content manager inresponse to said web content item with social content being enrichedwith associated information, and where said associated informationcomprises access statistics; implementing said association informationas meta data entries containing information about a social object ofsaid at least one social backend; receiving a notification aboutcreation of new portal objects by said integration component; creating anew instance of a social object within said social backend by saidintegration component; receiving a new identification from a newlycreated social object by said integration component; inserting newsocial object identification into meta data of said newly created socialobject; and representing said social object as a portal object to aportal user, where said representing reflects deletion and updates ofportal objects in said at least one social backend.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method and/or computerprogram product connects a portal to at least one social backend, wheresaid at least one social backend supports a social media service for auser of the portal. A page in the portal is created, where creating thepage in the portal changes a portal model of the portal. The portal issynchronized with said at least one social backend in response tochanges in the portal, where the changes in the portal comprise at leastone of a group consisting of: creation of a new page, deletion of anexisting page, modification of an existing page, creation of a newportlet, and deletion of an existing portlet, where said portalcomprises an integration component communicating with said at least onesocial backend. The functionality of said at least one social backend isintegrated into said portal system by creating at least one portalobject that is associated with at least one social object, where arepresentative social object is created in response to a web contentitem with social content being created, where content is retrieved froma web content manager in response to said web content item with socialcontent being enriched with associated information, and where saidassociated information comprises access statistics. One or moreprocessors then implement said association information as meta dataentries containing information about a social object of said at leastone social backend; receive a notification about creation of new portalobjects by said integration component; create a new instance of a socialobject within said social backend by said integration component; receivea new identification from a newly created social object by saidintegration component; insert new social object identification into metadata of said newly created social object; and represent said newlycreated social object as a portal object to a portal user, where saidrepresenting reflects deletion and updates of portal objects in said atleast one social backend.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the present invention, as described in detailbelow, is shown in the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a prior art portal environment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the prior art portal environmentof FIG. 1 in greater detail;

FIG. 3 is a conceptual representation of a component interaction flow,in accordance with an embodiment of the prior art;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a portal environment, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a conceptual representation of a component interaction flow toinstantiate a social page, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a conceptual representation of a component interaction flow toinstantiate a social content item, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a conceptual representation of a component interaction flow torender a social content item, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

FIG. 4 shows a portal environment, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention; FIG. 5 shows a component interaction flow toinstantiate a social page, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention; FIG. 6 shows a component interaction flow toinstantiate a social content item, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention; and FIG. 7 shows a component interaction flow torender a social content item, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the shown embodiment of the present inventionemploys a portal environment 100 comprising a portal 110 connected to atleast one social backend 160 and to conventional backends 140. Theportal 110 comprises an integration component 170 communicating with theat least one social backend 160; wherein functionality of the at leastone social backend 160 is integrated into the portal environment 100 bycreating at least one portal object that is associated with at least onesocial object. The integration component 170 comprises a portallistening component 172 listening events triggered by runningapplications of the portal 110 and creating an event list by filteringthe events for events associated with the at least one social backend160; a backend processing component 174 keeping the portal applicationsin synchronization with the at least one social backend 160 regardingchanges on portal side; a backend query component 176 queryingapplication programming interfaces of the at least one social backend160 for current social objects and their states, a portal modelprocessing component 178 calculating actions based on passed in statesof current social objects from the backend query component 176 andinvoking corresponding application programming interface calls on theportal 110.

Further the backend processing component 174 calculates actions based onthe event list and invokes corresponding application programminginterface calls on the social backend 160 for synchronization of theportal applications and the at least one social backend 160.

Still referring to FIG. 4, the page model component 112 and the portletmodel component 114 are connected to a portal data base 120 storingdifferent page models and portlet models, and the web content manager116 is connected to a web content database 130 and comprises a webcontent rendering engine capable of transforming a given content iteminto markup that can be rendered by the client 3. Further the page modelcomponent 112 is connected to the web content manager 116 via atemplating component 115.

In the shown embodiment the portal listening component (PLC) 172 listensfor events triggered by the portal application for example during thecreation of a new page, the deletion or modification of an existingpage, the creation of a new portlet or the deletion or modification ofan existing portlet. The portal listening component (PLC) 172 onlystarts an action for portal events that are related to portal artifactsthat are associated with a social backend 160, e.g. via uniform resourcelocators (URLs) pointing to a social backend 160 stored in an attributeor property of the portal artifact referenced by the event.

The backend processing component (BPC) 174 calculates the requiredactions based on passed in events from the portal listening component(PLC) 172 and invokes the corresponding application programminginterface (API) calls on the social backend 160 thus keeping the portalapplication and the social backend 160 in synchronization regardingchanges on the portal side.

The backend query component (BQC) 176 queries the social backend 160 viaits application programming interfaces (APIs) for the current socialobjects like applications 162, profiles 164, communities 166, andcorresponding activities, blogs, wikis, folders, files, etc., and theirstates.

The portal model processing component (PMPC) 178 calculates requiredactions based on passed in states from the backend query component (BQC)176 and invokes the corresponding application programming interface(API) calls on the portal model. E.g. for newly created social objectsit invokes the portal model application programming interfaces (APIs) toadd a page to the page hierarchy and page navigation or to add portletobjects to the correct pages. This applies accordingly to the deletionand modification of pages and portlets if corresponding objects havebeen deleted or modified in the social backend 160.

If during the traversal of the page hierarchy, for example when theportal's page navigation is created, a page is accessed that isassociated with a social object, like a social folder, the socialintegration service (SIS) 170 fills the page and portlet model based onqueries made against the social backend 160. That way the portal 110contains volatile social artifacts represented as portal artifacts.

To trigger the creation or deletion of social objects in the socialbackends 160 whenever corresponding portal artifacts are created ordeleted the social integration service (SIS) 170 listens tocorresponding events of the portal model APIs and performs the requiredcalls to the social backend 160. Thus, no other portal components needto be changed.

Referring to FIG. 5, a portal object, for example a page, gets createdin the portal environment 100. This task is performed by calling thecorresponding model controller application programming interfaces (APIs)of the page model component 112 or the portlet model component 114 thathandle the page instantiation in the portal 110. This creation stepmeans a change to the portal's model. Also, this new page in thisexample is based on a page template that is associated with a socialobject, wherein said association is implemented by meta data entries,e.g. attributes or properties of a page, containing information aboutthe social backend 160, e.g. via a uniform resource locators (URL), andthe social object, e.g. an identifier string that is valid within thesocial backend 160. This modification of the portal model triggers acorresponding event about the creation of the new portal page that is,amongst others, received by the portal listening component (PLC) 172 ofthe social integration service 170 that then invokes the backendprocessing component (BPC) 174. The backend processing component (BPC)174—based on this data—creates a new instance of said social objectusing the current user as owner of this object within said socialbackend 160 by calling the corresponding backend application programminginterfaces (APIs). The backend processing component (BPC) 174 receives anew identification (ID) from the newly created social object insertingnew social object identification (ID) into the Meta data of the newlycreated portal page. So, the social object is represented as a portalartifact to portal users.

The deletion and updates of portlet objects are reflected in the socialbackend 160 by the social integration service (SIS) 170 as well.

Also the social integration service (SIS) 170 keeps the portal model upto date if objects on the social backend 160 are created, modified ordeleted.

The method comprises the steps of opening a portal object in the portalenvironment 100, for example a page, by a user. This task is performedby calling the corresponding model application programming interfaces(APIs) that are used to render the pages and their sub-components, e.g.portlets, in the portal 110. When rendering a page associated with asocial backend object, the backend query component (BQC) 176 of thesocial integration service (SIS's) 170 checks if the object associatedwith the page still exists in the backend 160, and gathers the list ofnested objects, e.g. if the page is associated with a blog, the list ofcorresponding blog entries is retrieved, to pass it on to the portalmodel processing component (PMPC) 178. If the object associated with thepage does not exist anymore, the page is removed from the model. Theportal model processing component (PMPC) 178 uses this list to createadditional portal artifacts as required, for example it makes sure thateach blog entry is represented by a portlet in the model pointing to theblog entry. Additional portlets that are associated with blog entriesthat got removed in the meantime are also removed. According to this,the social object is presented as a portal artifact to portal users.

Referring to FIG. 6, a new article is created in the portal 110. As forprior art portals the article is represented as a web content item thatstill gets created first. But now the social integration service (SIS)170 also creates the corresponding item, in this case a topic in aforum, in the social backend 160 and associates the new topic with thenew article so that these two items can be rendered together as depictedin FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 7, a user navigates to a page displaying the articleweb content item that is associated with the forum topic. As for priorart portals the content item is retrieved from the web contentmanagement (WCM) component 116 but before it gets rendered the socialintegration service (SIS) 170 also retrieves the content and meta datafor the associated forum topic from the social backend 160. Depending onthe rendering template the article's content is supplemented with socialdata like the number of comments, information about who liked thisarticle, etc.

In summary, a method for operating a portal environment comprising aportal 110 connected to at least one social backend 160, wherein theportal 110 comprises an integration component 170 communicating with theat least one social backend (160), comprises the steps of: Integratingfunctionality of the at least one social backend 160 into the portalenvironment 100 by creating at least one portal object that isassociated with at least one social object; implementing the associationby meta data entries containing information about said at least onesocial backend 160 and/or a social object 162, 164, 166 of said at leastone social backend 160; receiving a notification about creation of newportal object by the integration component 170, creating a new instanceof the social object within the social backend 160 by the integrationcomponent 170, receiving a new identification from the newly createdsocial object by the integration component 170, inserting new socialobject identification into the meta data of the newly created portalobject, and representing the social object as portal object to portaluser, wherein said integration component 170 reflects deletion andupdates of portal objects in the social backend 160.

Further a folder of the at least one social backend 160 is associated toa page on the portal 110 and/or a file of the at least one socialbackend 16) is associated to a portlet on the portal 110 and/or a forumtopic of the at least one social backend 160 is associated to a webcontent on the portal 110.

An improved portal environment 100 comprises a portal 110 connected toat least one social backend 160, wherein the portal 110 comprises anintegration component 170 communicating with the at least one socialbackend 160; wherein functionality of the at least one social backend160 is integrated into the portal environment 100 by creating at leastone portal object that is associated with at least one social object;wherein the integration component 170 comprises a portal listeningcomponent 172 listening to events triggered by running applications ofthe portal 110 and creating an event list by filtering the events forevents associated with the at least one social backend 160; a backendprocessing component 174 keeping the portal applications insynchronization with the at least one social backend 160 regardingchanges on portal side; a backend query component 176 queryingapplication programming interfaces of the at least one social backend160 for current social objects and their states, a portal modelprocessing component 178 calculating actions based on passed in statesof current social objects from the backend query component 176 andinvoking corresponding application programming interface calls on theportal 110.

The technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide aportal environment and a corresponding method for operating a portalenvironment, which are able to integrate external content feed data,especially external social backend data to a portal page, and to solvethe above-mentioned shortcomings and pain points of prior art portalenvironments.

Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention a portalenvironment comprises a portal connected to at least one social backend.The portal comprises an integration component communicating with the atleast one social backend, wherein functionality of the at least onesocial backend is integrated into the portal environment by creating atleast one portal object that is associated with at least one socialobject. The integration component comprises a portal listening componentlistening events triggered by running applications of the portal andcreating an event list by filtering the events for events associatedwith the at least one social backend; a backend processing componentkeeping the portal applications in synchronization with the at least onesocial backend regarding changes on portal side; a backend querycomponent querying application programming interfaces of the at leastone social backend for current social objects and their states, a portalmodel processing component calculating actions based on passed in statesof current social objects from the backend query component and invokingcorresponding application programming interface calls on the portal.

In further embodiments of the present invention, the backend processingcomponent calculates actions based on the event list and invokescorresponding application programming interface calls on the socialbackend for synchronization of the portal applications and the at leastone social backend.

In further embodiments of the present invention, the listening eventstriggered by running applications of the portal comprise at least one ofthe following processes: Creation of a new page, deletion ormodification of an existing page, creation of a new portlet or deletionor modification of an existing portlet.

In further embodiments of the present invention, each portal event ofthe event list comprises at least one uniform resource locator pointingto the social backend stored in an attribute or property of a portalobject referenced by a corresponding portal event.

In further embodiments of the present invention, the integrationcomponent fills a page and portlet model based on queries made againstthe social backend if a corresponding page associated with a socialobject is accessed during traversal of page hierarchy.

In further embodiments of the present invention, the integrationcomponent triggers a creation or deletion of social objects in thesocial backend whenever corresponding portal objects are created ordeleted.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a method for operating aportal environment comprising a portal connected to at least one socialbackend, wherein the portal comprises an integration componentcommunicating with the at least one social backend, comprises the stepsof: Integrating functionality of the at least one social backend intothe portal environment by creating at least one portal object that isassociated with at least one social object; implementing the associationby meta data entries containing information about the at least onesocial backend and/or a social object of the at least one socialbackend; receiving a notification about creation of new portal object bythe integration component, creating a new instance of the social objectwithin the social backend by the integration component, receiving a newidentification from the newly created social object by the integrationcomponent, inserting new social object identification into the meta dataof the newly created portal object, representing the social object asportal object to portal user, wherein the integration component reflectsdeletion and updates of portal objects in the social backend.

In further embodiments of the present invention, a folder of the atleast one social backend is associated to a page on the portal and/or afile of the at least one social backend is associated to a portlet onthe portal and/or a forum topic of the at least one social backend isassociated to a web content on said portal.

In further embodiments of the present invention, page hierarchy and pagecontent depend on content of a corresponding application of the at leastone social backend.

In further embodiments of the present invention, an entry in a socialblog application is represented by a portlet on a corresponding page.

In further embodiments of the present invention, another blog related tothe social blog application is represented as child or sibling page ofsaid portal.

In further embodiments of the present invention, representative socialobject is created when a web content item with social content iscreated, wherein content is retrieved form a web content manager whenthe web content item with social content is rendered enriched withassociated information.

In further embodiments of the present invention, the associatedinformation comprises at least one of the following: Social data, liketags, number of likes or access statistics.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a data processingprogram for execution in a data processing system comprises softwarecode portions for performing a method for operating a portal environmentwhen the program is run on the data processing system.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a computer programproduct stored on a computer-usable medium, comprises computer-readableprogram means for causing a computer to perform a method for operating aportal environment when the program is run on the computer.

All in all, embodiments of the present invention are able to enhance theperformance of portal environments and bring forward social concepts toportals and thus enable dynamic adaptation to volatile user interactionscenarios in today's industry projects accessible via a single entrypoint to the information technology (IT) infrastructure of acorresponding enterprise.

The key idea of the present invention is to integrate the social backenddata by associating different portal artifacts, like pages, portlets,content items, etc., with different social objects so that changes tothe backend can be reflected automatically in the portal environment,instead of managing single portlets manually.

One possible implementation to integrate the social backend data is toassociate a portal page with a folder of a social backend application.The page hierarchy and their content are not statically defined butdepending on the content of a social blog application.

For example, all entries in the blog are represented by a portlet onthat page while other related blogs are represented as child or siblingpages. Each portlet on such a page shows the content of a blog entry.Whenever a blog gets created in the backend a corresponding page will beadded to the hierarchy of the portal page and whenever a blog entry getscreated in the backend a corresponding portlet gets created on theportal page representing the blog.

On the other hand, the creation or deletion of a portal page in thatsub-tree triggers the creation or deletion of the associated blog in thesocial backend application and the creation or deletion of a portlet onsuch a portal page triggers the creation or deletion of a blog entry inthe social backend application.

Another possible implementation to integrate the social backend data isto associate web content items with social data. When a “social” contentitem is created, a representative social object is created as well.Users can perform social actions on that item like commenting or liking.When the “social” content item is rendered, the content is retrievedfrom the web content management backend, as for prior art content item,but enriched with associated social data, like tags, number of likes,access statistics, etc.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A portal system comprising: a portal connected toat least one social backend, wherein said at least one social backendsupports a social media service for a user of the portal; a portalobject generator for creating a page in the portal, wherein creating thepage in the portal changes a portal model of the portal; and a backendprocessing component for keeping the portal synchronized with said atleast one social backend in response to changes in the portal, whereinthe changes in the portal comprise at least one of a group consistingof: creation of a new page, deletion of an existing page, modificationof an existing page, creation of a new portlet, and deletion of anexisting portlet, wherein said portal comprises an integration componentcommunicating with said at least one social backend, the portal systemfurther performing a method comprising: integrating functionality ofsaid at least one social backend into said portal system by creating atleast one portal object that is associated with at least one socialobject, wherein a representative social object is created in response toa web content item with social content being created, wherein content isretrieved from a web content manager in response to said web contentitem with social content being enriched with associated information, andwherein said associated information comprises access statistics;implementing said association information as meta data entriescontaining information about a social object of said at least one socialbackend; receiving a notification about creation of new portal objectsby said integration component; creating a new instance of a socialobject within said social backend by said integration component;receiving a new identification from a newly created social object bysaid integration component; inserting new social object identificationinto meta data of said newly created social object; and representingsaid social object as a portal object to a portal user, wherein saidrepresenting reflects deletion and updates of portal objects in said atleast one social backend.
 2. The portal system according to claim 1,wherein each portal event of an event list comprises at least oneuniform resource locator pointing to said at least one social backendstored in an attribute of a portal object referenced by a correspondingportal event.
 3. The portal system according to claim 1, furthercomprising: an integration component that fills a page model and aportlet model based on queries made against said at least one socialbackend in response to a corresponding page associated with a socialobject being accessed during traversal of page hierarchy.
 4. The portalsystem according to claim 1, further comprising: an integrationcomponent that triggers a creation or deletion of social objects in saidat least one social backend whenever corresponding portal objects arecreated or deleted.
 5. A method comprising: connecting, by one or moreprocessors, a portal to at least one social backend, wherein said atleast one social backend supports a social media service for a user ofthe portal; creating, by one or more processors, a page in the portal,wherein creating the page in the portal changes a portal model of theportal; synchronizing, by one or more processors, the portal with saidat least one social backend in response to changes in the portal,wherein the changes in the portal comprise at least one of a groupconsisting of: creation of a new page, deletion of an existing page,modification of an existing page, creation of a new portlet, anddeletion of an existing portlet, wherein said portal comprises anintegration component communicating with said at least one socialbackend; integrating, by one or more processors, functionality of saidat least one social backend into said portal system by creating at leastone portal object that is associated with at least one social object,wherein a representative social object is created in response to a webcontent item with social content being created, wherein content isretrieved from a web content manager in response to said web contentitem with social content being enriched with associated information, andwherein said associated information comprises access statistics;implementing, by one or more processors, said association information asmeta data entries containing information about a social object of saidat least one social backend; receiving, by one or more processors, anotification about creation of new portal objects by said integrationcomponent; creating, by one or more processors, a new instance of asocial object within said social backend by said integration component;receiving, by one or more processors, a new identification from a newlycreated social object by said integration component; inserting, by oneor more processors, new social object identification into meta data ofsaid newly created social object; and representing, by one or moreprocessors, said newly created social object as a portal object to aportal user, wherein said representing reflects deletion and updates ofportal objects in said at least one social backend.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 5, wherein a folder of said at least one socialbackend is associated to a page on said portal, wherein a file of saidat least one social backend is associated to a portlet on said portal,and wherein a forum topic of said at least one social backend isassociated to a web content on said portal.
 7. The method according toclaim 5, wherein page hierarchy and page content depend on content of acorresponding application of said at least one social backend.
 8. Themethod according to claim 5, wherein an entry in a social blogapplication is represented by a portlet on a corresponding page.
 9. Themethod according to claim 8, wherein another blog related to said socialblog application is represented as a child page of said portal in orderto define the page hierarchy.
 10. The method according to claim 8,wherein another blog related to said social blog application isrepresented as a sibling page of said portal.
 11. The method accordingto claim 5, wherein a representative social object is created inresponse to a web content item with social content being created,wherein content is retrieved from a web content manager in response tosaid web content item with social content being enriched with associatedinformation, and wherein said associated information comprises socialdata, “like” tags, a number of “likes”, and access statistics.
 12. Themethod according to claim 5, wherein the page is associated with a weblog (blog) that is supported by said at least one social backend, andwherein each entry in the blog is represented by a different portlet inthe portal model.
 13. The method according to claim 5, furthercomprising: detecting, by one or more processors, a new article in theportal, wherein the new article is a written document about a particulartopic; creating, by one or more processors, a new topic in a forum insaid at least one social backend, wherein the new topic in the forumdescribes the particular topic of the new article; and rendering, by oneor more processors, the forum with the new topic and the new articletogether in the portal.
 14. The method according to claim 5, furthercomprising: synchronizing, by one or more processors, the portal withapplications used by said at least one social backend, profiles ofindividual users of said at least one social backend, and communities ofusers of said at least one social backend, wherein said synchronizingthe portal causes the portal to contain the applications, profiles, andcommunities found in said at least one social backend.
 15. The methodaccording to claim 5, further comprising: triggering, by one or moreprocessors, said synchronization in response to the portal model of theportal being changed by the page being created in the portal.
 16. Themethod according to claim 5, further comprising: detecting, by one ormore processors, a creation of a portal artifact in the portal bydetecting a corresponding artifact creation event in a portal modelapplication programming interface (API); and in response to detectingthe creation of the portal artifact in the portal, creating, by one ormore processors, a corresponding social object in the at least onesocial backend.
 17. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:detecting, by one or more processors, a deletion of a portal artifact inthe portal by detecting a corresponding artifact deletion event in aportal model application programming interface (API); and in response todetecting the deletion of the portal artifact in the portal, deleting,by one or more processors, a corresponding social object in the at leastone social backend.
 18. A computer program product for operating aportal, the computer program product comprising a computer readablestorage medium having program code embodied therewith, wherein thecomputer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, andwherein the program code is readable and executable by a processor toperform a method comprising: connecting a portal to at least one socialbackend, wherein said at least one social backend supports a socialmedia service for a user of the portal; creating a page in the portal,wherein creating the page in the portal changes a portal model of theportal; synchronizing the portal with said at least one social backendin response to changes in the portal, wherein the changes in the portalcomprise at least one of a group consisting of: creation of a new page,deletion of an existing page, modification of an existing page, creationof a new portlet, and deletion of an existing portlet, wherein saidportal comprises an integration component communicating with said atleast one social backend, the method further comprising: integratingfunctionality of said at least one social backend into said portalsystem by creating at least one portal object that is associated with atleast one social object, wherein a representative social object iscreated in response to a web content item with social content beingcreated, wherein content is retrieved from a web content manager inresponse to said web content item with social content being enrichedwith associated information, and wherein said associated informationcomprises access statistics; implementing said association informationas meta data entries containing information about said at least onesocial backend and a social object of said at least one social backend;receiving a notification about creation of new portal objects by saidintegration component; creating a new instance of a social object withinsaid social backend by said integration component; receiving a newidentification from a newly created social object by said integrationcomponent; inserting new social object identification into meta data ofsaid newly created social object; and representing said newly createdsocial object as a portal object to a portal user, wherein saidrepresenting reflects deletion and updates of portal objects in said atleast one social backend.
 19. The computer program product of claim 18,wherein a folder of said at least one social backend is associated to apage on said portal, wherein a file of said at least one social backendis associated to a portlet on said portal, and wherein a forum topic ofsaid at least one social backend is associated to a web content on saidportal.